Historically in the home audio field, vinyl records have enjoyed a dominant position as the most popular form of pre-recorded media. While 8-track tapes and magnetic cassette tapes have also enjoyed periods of popularity, all have recently begun to be replaced by CDs.
Compact discs enjoy increasingly widespread popularity today because of their high quality sound which is a result of digitally recording the audio signals. Compact discs also have the advantage of being nearly indestructible, since they are read by a laser beam which never comes in physical contact with the CD, and therefore, does not wear away the CD's surface.
While the CD as a recording medium has proven to be highly popular, the packaging of such products has not been as successful or trouble-free. Prior art packaging often resulted in an unnecessary amount of non-recyclable waste which was alarming to the environmentally-aware consumer. Moreover, the unnecessarily bulky packaging required a large area for retailers to display the CDs.
The most well known and widely used package for CDs is the so-called "jewel box" which consists of a clear plastic cover hinged on the left or right side with a CD-mounting receptacle (injection-molded) contained within the box. A major disadvantage of the jewel box is that it requires a great deal of non-recyclable plastic that is both thick and expensive. Moreover, printed graphics can only be provided by the additional step of including a separate paper insert; this additional step increases both the cost and manufacturing time.
More recently, the jewel box has begun to be replaced on the market by the compact disc package described in Kosterka U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,812 ("the '812 patent"), entitled "Compact Disc Package and a Method of Making Same," assigned to AGI Incorporated of New York, N.Y. The assignee of the '812 patent is believed to market its package under the trademark DIGIPAK.RTM.. The DIGIPAK.RTM. package is a three-part paper or cardboard item having a small circular injection-molded piece mounted in the center onto which a CD is placed. This injection-molded mounting, like the jewel box, is formed of plastics which have harmful PVC components when discarded. The mounting has finger depressions at four points (90.degree. apart) around the circumference of the CD-receiving area in order to allow the user to remove it from the injection-molded piece after the CD has been pressed onto the standard self-locking retaining button in the center for storage purposes. The left and right leaves of the DIGIPAK.RTM. package are made of paper and contain desired text and graphics.
The DIGIPAK.RTM. package is advantageous when compared to the prior art jewel box since much less non-recyclable, injection-molded materials and plastic are implemented. However, when multiplied by the billions of CDs which have now been sold, there is still much unnecessary waste and expense associated with this type of package. The DIGIPAK.RTM. package, like the jewel box, also has the disadvantage of requiring an unnecessarily large area for retailers to display the package.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a new and improved CD package and a method of manufacturing the same.
Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a CD package which allows for an increased area for pre-printed graphics.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a CD package which requires a minimal amount of injection molded plastic.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a CD package which allows for reliable storage and protection of the sound quality of the music on the CD by reducing the risk of the CD falling free from its package.
Further objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds.